Her Sister Killed Her Kids — And She Forgave Her

During a shocking psychotic break, Danielle Lambert's twin walked her children into oncoming traffic.

By
Cathy Free

May 22, 2015

Courtesy of the Lambert Family

As the doctor gently shut the hospital room door, Danielle Lambert knew that the news was bad. She and her husband, Ken, collapsed into each other's arms and wept. "There were no words. We knew our kids weren't coming home," she says. "Their injuries were just too severe. All we could do was hold each and other and cry."

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Just hours earlier, on a frigid January evening in 2008, Danielle had hugged her two children, Kaleigh, 5, and Shane, 4, goodbye. She waved cheerfully as her twin sister, Marci Thibault, drove them away for what was supposed to be a fun American Girl-themed slumber party weekend at her home in Bellingham, Massachusetts.

After a quiet dinner that night with Ken, Danielle had gone to bed early and was startled when the phone rang just after 10 p.m. Marci's 16-year-old niece, Arielle, one of several cousins who were supposed to be attending the party, was on the line.

"Aunt Danielle? The police called and said there's been an accident. They're taking Marci to the hospital, but they didn't say anything about Kaleigh and Shane. Can you get here soon? I'm scared."

Danielle, who works as a nurse practioner, and Ken, a construction manager, bolted out of bed to put on their shoes and get dressed. Her hands shaking, Danielle dialed the emergency room at Lawrence General Hospital in Lawrence, Massachusetts. "How are my kids?" she asked a night-duty nurse. She could barely get the words out, she felt so frantic. "Please, tell me, how is their condition? Are they stable?"

The nurse hesitated, then gently said, "I'm afraid their condition is poor." Danielle pressed for more details, but none were offered. "Get here as soon as you can," the nurse said.

Panicked and in tears, the Lamberts rushed out the door and drove 23 miles from their home in Brentwood, New Hampshire, to the town of Lawrence. Inside the hospital, a doctor promptly led them to a private room and gave them the horrific news.

The Lamberts learned that Marci, 40, a married mom with two teenagers, had unexplainably crossed the median on Interstate 495 in Lowell, Massachusetts. After stopping her car in the wrong direction, she then undressed herself, Kaleigh, and Shane and walked the children into oncoming traffic. All three of them were killed when two cars hit them head-on.

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Although she had suffered from depression and bipolar disorder in recent years, "we thought Marci was taking medication and everything was under control," says Danielle. "She seemed perfectly normal when she picked up the kids at our house that night. But somewhere on the way to her house for the party, she suffered a psychotic breakdown."

She seemed perfectly normal when she picked up the kids.

After Kaleigh and Shane's funeral, the Lamberts were shocked to discover that Marci had received a citation from a state trooper for failing to stay within striped lines while on the way to their home that evening. "She had stopped in the highway median, and when a good Samaritan tried to help her, she hit him and kept calling him 'Harry,'" recalls Danielle. "Then she sat down in a puddle of water and started splashing around."

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Passing drivers called the police, and three officers debated whether to take Marci involuntarily to the hospital, Danielle says. But they ultimately decided to allow her sister to drive on, even though she told them she was on her way to pick up her niece and nephew.

"When she came to the house, her clothes were no longer wet and she had snapped out of her psychosis," says Danielle, "so we had no idea what had happened. If I had known, I never would have allowed her to take my kids. When we learned that Marci could have been stopped that night, we were crushed. Our children would still be alive if the police hadn't allowed her to leave."

She and Ken were so distraught after burying their children that they awoke in a daze every morning for months, frequently forgot to eat, and struggled to sleep. "I basically had three reasons to get up and go to work every day: Danielle, Kaleigh, and Shane," says Ken. "And in an instant, two of those reasons were gone."

Three months after her kids' deaths, Danielle decided that to help lessen her and Ken's pain, she would do something to keep other families from experiencing a similar tragedy. With Ken's help, she started Keep Sound Minds, a Massachusetts mental health awareness organization that provides DVD training to law enforcement agencies about mental illness and puts on presentations for the public.

With statistics showing that one in four adults suffers from mental illness or will experience a mental health crisis, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, "this is something that touches us all," says Danielle, who now shares her story at schools and rotary clubs in the hope of erasing the stigma surrounding mental illness.

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Six months after losing her kids, she forgave the sister who had been her best friend since childhood. "I woke up one day and realized that Marci was gone, too," she says. "We'd done everything together, from camping to watching each others' kids and talking on the phone. It took me a few months, but I did forgive her. I realized it wasn't Marci who did this horrible act that day. She loved my kids as her own. It was the mental illness that did this."

In 2011, Danielle gave birth to twins, Kolten and Sheadon, now 3, bringing some light back into her and Ken's lives.

"They'll never replace the kids that we lost — they'll always be our kids, too," she says. "But they give us a new focus in our lives. We talk to the twins all the time about Kaleigh and Shane and read them their favorite books. Losing them is an emotional journey that will always be with us. We will always carry Kaleigh and Shane close to our hearts."

Bipolar disorder affects approximately 5.7 million adult Americans, or about 2.6% of the U.S. population age 18 and older every year, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Symptoms include distinct manic or depressed states and may also include psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations or delusions. If you or someone you know is experiencing symptoms of bipolar disorder, depression, or psychosis, visit nami.org or dbsalliance.org for help.

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